The Avenger 9 - Tuned for Murder by Kenneth Robeson Read Free Book Online Page B

seeing her at a loss, for once.
    “We used the motor fan for a propeller, and the car rose right up to the top,” he said.
    A spot of clear red glowed on each of Nellie’s pink-and-white cheeks. “If you don’t—”
    Smitty became more serious. “You know the sedan’s windows were made gas-tight, in case anyone tried to kill us that way. Well, it came in handy in the quarry. With the windows up tight, there was air enough in the sedan to keep us going for about two minutes under water. In that time we fastened on the nose clips and the little oxygen tanks the chief kept in the car—again for use in case of gas. But they were just as effective for use under water. We rolled down the sedan’s windows, waited a little while, and then floated up to the top of the quarry. And that was that.”
    “Yes, simple!” jeered Nellie. “But it’s a miracle you weren’t killed. My heavens!”
    The startled look in her eyes and the pallor of her cheeks was something Smitty liked to see. The giant had a soft spot in his heart for this diminutive blond tornado.
    “It’s nice for you to think of me like that,” he said awkwardly.
    Nellie turned woman on him.
    “I wasn’t thinking of you at all,” she snapped. “I was thinking of the chief and Josh and Mac.”

    The hot retort on the giant’s lips was checked by the appearance of the three named.
    Smitty and the two girls were in a large office which was one of six in a vacant suite. The Avenger had decided that as long as his foes thought he and the rest were dead, it would be a good idea to have them go on thinking that. He hadn’t wanted to go to a hotel because their presence might be reported. So he had come here, to the office building of an old friend, and secretly arranged to use this vacant suite. He had put cots in. It would be their headquarters in Garfield City.
    Benson felt safe because he knew he could trust the building owner. The Avenger had friends in almost every city in the land; and such was his judgment of men that none ever failed him.
    Benson’s colorless, icy eyes were not quite so sharp as they turned on Nellie.
    He told her and Rosabel what had been discovered to date, in a few, brief words. Very few, and very brief. For there was not much to tell, as yet. A man had invented a super war weapon, and at once a lot of mysterious things had begun to happen. The underworld was somehow mixed into it. That was all that was known.
    “So we’ll start at once to learn some more,” Benson concluded. “Mrs. Cranlowe, the inventor’s young wife, is in town. You will take rooms in her building, Nellie, and make her acquaintance. Find out from her what you can. No matter how irrelevant it may seem, what you hear may be valuable. So make a note of everything. You, Rosabel, will be Nellie’s maid. And keep a gun with you.”
    The colorless eyes, like ice in a polar dawn, turned on Josh.
    “At the Garfield Gear Company, two men had suffered strange mental lapses. Just outside the company yard, another seemed to have suffered one, too. And the first two men were killed—at Garfield Gear. Then there was that fuse casing, which may or may not be significant. You, Josh, will keep an eye on that place and all the executives in it.”
    The cold, pale eyes raked the red, freckled face of MacMurdie. “You will interview the psychiatrists who tended Blandell and Sessel, before they were murdered.”
    The giant came next.
    “Smitty, try to get on the trail of that gang who tried to kill us at the quarry. Yours will be the most dangerous job, not only because you’re going after out-and-out gunmen, but also because you’re apt to be spotted. The rest of us can disguise ourselves a little. You can’t.”
    “Whoosh,” chuckled Mac. “I’ll say not! Ye could disguise Pikes Peak as easy as Smitty.”
    “You’re not too easy to make into a chorus girl, yourself,” growled the giant, looking at the Scot’s freckled homeliness.
    Benson looked at the two, and